Campground may close without assistance

Jim Brewer Published: July 13, 2006 12:00 AM

By JIM BREWERT-G Staff WriterLOUDONVILLE Mondays storm may have its first casualty.Unless we get some outside help, we're done," said a tearful Amy Smith as she surveyed damages to her Pleasant Valley Campground, located on the Mohican River at 16325 Holmes County Road 23 (Wally Road) about 5 miles south of Loudonville."Unless the area is designated a disaster area, we will have to close," Smith said Wednesday morning.Smith said when the storm hit and the Mohican rose with freightening quickness late Monday afternoon, "we ordered all of our campers out, but had to fight with some of them to get them to leave. Some were actually running into the raging river trying to retrieve tents and other items. They could have been swept away by the river."At the height of the flood, water swept through the Smith's riverside home, inundating the campground as far as 300 feet away from the stream banks."I heard some comment that things were hunky-dory on Wally Road, but they aren't," Smith said. "As far as I know, every campground on Wally Road is closed. If some volunteers and friends hadn't have come here I think we could have had people lose their lives in the flood. Water rose to our cabins on Wally Road and lapped against it. It rose right to the fence around our swimming pool, but not quite to it. We have a couple of rentals upriver that were almost under the flood waters."Smith said about 9 p.m. Monday, Holmes County engineer Chris Young "called us and told us to get out."Smith said among items damaged at the campground were nearly 150 electric pedestals that serve RVs. "Each one will have to be completely hosed out and the breakers in them replaced," she said.Worse, she added, "is that we learned our insurance will not cover any damages caused by flood. The only way we can survive, financially, is if we can get a low interest loan through the Small Business Administration, and we would be eligible for it only if the area is declared a disaster area," Smith said.Arrow Point Campground, located on the opposite side of a Wally Road bridge just upstream from Pleasant Valley, was forced to drag all its riverside campers about 50 feet away from the river to save them from the flood. Still, a few sustained damages.About a mile upstream, Richard German and his daughter, Carli, spent Wednesday mopping up storm damages at their carry-out at 3189 Ashland County Road 3175 just west of the Ashland-Holmes County line.German expressed both dismay and irritation that his property and those around it never received any support from safety forces the night of the storm."I called 9-1-1 advising them that a mudslide was running across the road here at the same time campers evacuating the area were rolling up the road at 50 mph or more," German said. "I thought we had a serious safety situation. But we heard nothing from them and did not see anyone official until the next day when road crews came."German said water and mud slid down the hillside just west of his business in the height of the storm. The county closed the section of road, about 4 miles south of Loudonville, early Tuesday and it remained closed Wednesday."Actually, the mud saved my store from major damage," German said. "It piled up and acted as a dam to keep water out."German's store is located on the opposite side of Wally Road from the Mohican River. Several cabins and permanent homes on the river side of the road in the same area sustained major flood damage, including one home whose siding was ripped from the walls, exposing bare stud walls."The only thing I actually lost was ice cream that melted during the power outage," he said. "We have a generator, but I was unable to pull it to the store because of the heavy rain and all the mud."Ashland County commissioners made a declaration of disaster at an emergency meeting Tuesday morning. As of Wednesday afternoon, no such declaration had been made for Holmes County, which includes the Pleasant Valley and Arrow Point campgrounds. A check with the Holmes County commissioners office Wednesday afternoon indicated the disaster declaration had not been placed on the agenda for a meeting this morning.However, Commissioner Dave Hall, reportedly was touring the flood-stricken area Wednesday afternoon.